The advent of digital video recorders and on-demand and pay per view programming from television service providers symbolizes the shift in consumer preference to view video programming when they want to, not when the program is broadcast. In order to provide a more flexible architecture for making a large volume of content available on demand, major telecommunications carriers are in the midst of rolling out television delivered via Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and cable companies are similarly planning to migrate cable networks to support a switched (rather than broadcast) programming viewing paradigm.
Major telecommunications companies are seeking to compete with cable companies as video providers by providing broadcast video services either via Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks, which carry data signals to the home with fiber, and Fiber to the Node (FTTN) networks, which build fiber deeper into neighborhoods, getting it close enough to make the remaining copper phone line loop length short enough to provide enough bandwidth to send multiple television streams. Such networks are capable of being configured as a “switched” video architecture, sending only one channel to each television in the home. Unlike broadcast networks like standard cable television and satellite television, which broadcast an array of channels and leave the “tuning” of the channel desired to the TV or set top box, with switched video architectures the channel change occurs in the network.